Duncan Keith

There have been a lot of injuries, suspensions and absences in Chicago sports for one reason or another in recent days and weeks. Here's a scorecard on the status of some of the players involved. IN Duncan Keith He'll return from suspension Thursday when the Blackhawks visit Minnesota. OUT Jonathan Toews The injured Blackhawks captain is traveling with the team but not playing Thursday. IN Richard Hamilton The Bulls guard returned to action Monday night in the team's loss to Houston.

Repeat after us: Teuvo Teravainen is not a savior. Now that we've got that out of the way, we'll focus on the Blackhawks and NHL debut of the 19-year-old Finnish phenom, who hit the ice against Dallas on Tuesday. Will he be the next Patrick Kane? It's SO easy to make that leap. Kane first played in the NHL at age 19 just like Teravainen, both are 5-foot-11 and both are known for otherworldly stick-handling skills. It's too soon to know if the rookie has, say, a Conn Smythe Trophy in his future.

Two Blackhawks walk into a Chicago bar ... And order milk? MILK! That's right. Milk instead of a cold beer. That's what Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook were drinking when they made cameos in Tuesday night's episode of "Chicago Fire. " Why would they order milk? While we're waiting to hear from NBC, we came up with our own list of potential reasons: 1. There is a shortage of champagne after the Stanley Cup celebrations over the summer. 2. Milk has become the official drink at the United Center.

Two Blackhawks walk into a Chicago bar ... And order milk? MILK! That's right. Milk instead of a cold beer. That's what Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook were drinking when they made cameos in Tuesday night's episode of "Chicago Fire. " Why would they order milk? While we're waiting to hear from NBC, we came up with our own list of potential reasons: 1. There is a shortage of champagne after the Stanley Cup celebrations over the summer. 2. Milk has become the official drink at the United Center.

Sorry, Blackhawks fans, but you must choose only Patrick Sharp or Duncan Keith. You can't have both. The stars are in a bid to represent the Hawks in fan voting to determine who will grace the cover of EA Sports' "NHL 13. " The voting, under way at nhl.com, will consist of two preliminary rounds, followed by a 16-player bracket to produce a winner. The cover-contest champion will be revealed June 20. The first round pits two members of each team against each other and continues until April 11, when the field is reduced to 32 players.

The days are getting darker for Bulls fans, and I'm not just talking about the end of daylight saving time. Millionaires are fighting with billionaires over a few percentage points of a multibillion-dollar pot. If you're a Bulls fan, you've braced yourself for a cold, hard truth: There might not be any ball this season. Before you compose a handwritten letter to David Stern, streaked with tears of frustration, anger and whiskey (we've all been there), know that you've got a friend.

The Blackhawks were back in Philadelphia on Thursday night, returning to the Wells Fargo Center ice for the first time since you-know-what happened two years ago. But fans can be forgiven if there wasn't much of a sense of déjà vu. Sure, Stanley Cup Finals hero Patrick Kane is still around, as are Blackhawks stalwarts Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, but that's about it. The Flyers have a much different look this...

This is the last thing Patrick Sharp and the Blackhawks wanted to hear. Not to mention Hawks fans. After suffering an upper-body injury in Sunday night's loss to Detroit - their fourth straight--Sharp will be out three to four weeks, coach Joel Quenneville announced Tuesday. "He's certainly had a good first half for us," Quenneville said of Sharp, who has 20 goals and 20 assists in 42 games. "We have to check better and pay attention to detail and play tighter and off of that you might get more offense.

Remember when the Blackhawks lost nine straight games and tumbled from first to sixth in the Western Conference standings? While the Blackhawks likely won't return to their perch atop the standings, they have reclaimed a lot of the ground they lost during that winter slide. Tuesday night's 5-1 dismemberment of the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena was their fourth straight win and their eighth in their last 10 games. They are now two points behind Detroit and Nashville and within striking distance of home ice in the first round of the NHL playoffs.

I bet my editor is going to headline this "Rooting To Lose" so it really pops off the page. (Editor's note: I considered it.) The Blackhawks sit comfortably as the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference. After a particularly ugly loss to Nashville on Sunday, it's understandable that many Hawks fans want a trail of undefeated, blood-stained ice for the rest of the regular season. But I think we'd be better off if the Hawks finish on a "meh" note. The highly underrated sportsclubstats.com (using more than 1 billion weighted simulations of the rest of the NHL regular season!

The Blackhawks are growing up. They've won the Stanley Cup twice in four seasons, they're again one of the NHL's elite teams--and a handful have become first-time dads recently. Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa each welcomed their second children earlier this season, and both are fathers to a pair of daughters. Sheldon Brookbank and his wife are expecting their second child in the spring, and defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson also is prepping to become a dad in the next few months.

You probably thought you'd seen everything a Blackhawks Bruins game had to offer when these teams met in the 2013 Stanley Cup Final. Uh, no. Not only did Sunday's rematch at the United Center end in a shootout - which, of course, is impossible in the playoffs - there were a number of strange occurrences this time around. Parts of the game were familiar, and just as nerve-wracking. After Marian Hossa put the Hawks up 1-0 in the first, Boston took a 2-1 lead until the Hawks eventually forced overtime.

Cold. Leathery. With a fair amount of sweat. If anyone knows what hockey glove tastes like, it's Andrew Shaw. One of the lasting images of the 2013 Stanley Cup Final will be the Blackhawks forward absorbing a fist to the face in front of the Boston net - more than once. It led to a sore nose in Game 5 on Saturday. Not to worry, though, Shaw said it's fine. So are the Hawks, who head into Monday's Game 6 in Boston with a 3-2 series lead. If they wind up hoisting Lord Stanley's Cup for the second time in four years, the usual suspects will have played...

In three short years, Patrick Kane has grown up. Before lifting the Stanley Cup in 2010 at age 21, he talked to RedEye about how he liked to play himself in an NHL video game and how he was still adjusting to superstardom in Chicago, where athletes are mega-celebrities. Fans saw the boyish grin he flashed when he celebrated that game-winning goal against Philadelphia in overtime to crown the Hawks champions. Fast-forward three years and he still has the same boyish grin. Chicago witnessed it again when he smacked the puck into the net in double...

Duncan Keith entered the press conference area and set down a plastic bag holding four enormous bottles of juice. After what the Blackhawks defenseman and his teammates had just endured Saturday, you can't blame him for being thirsty. It can't be easy to recover from a double-overtime, Western Conference title-clinching win. Will the Hawks have enough left for an encore in the Stanley Cup finals? That will be decided starting Wednesday at the United Center. For the time being, amid their usual preparation for a playoff series, one can only imagine...

At some point in Thursday's Blackhawks-Kings game, a forecheck is going to be given with juuust a bit too much vigor. A skater will spray juuust a bit too much snow in the goalie's face. Chirping will turn into shoving, and shoving will become a brawl. And a real hockey rivalry will be born. These teams haven't played often enough to engender the deep, dark hockey hatred that only comes from repeated exposure and repeated cheap shots. But the combination of uber-high expectations in Chicago and "Hey, aren't we the defending champs?"

At some point in Thursday's Blackhawks-Kings game, a forecheck is going to be given with juuust a bit too much vigor. A skater will spray juuust a bit too much snow in the goalie's face. Chirping will turn into shoving, and shoving will become a brawl. And a real hockey rivalry will be born. These teams haven't played often enough to engender the deep, dark hockey hatred that only comes from repeated exposure and repeated cheap shots. But the combination of uber-high expectations in Chicago and "Hey, aren't we the defending champs?"

Repeat after us: Teuvo Teravainen is not a savior. Now that we've got that out of the way, we'll focus on the Blackhawks and NHL debut of the 19-year-old Finnish phenom, who hit the ice against Dallas on Tuesday. Will he be the next Patrick Kane? It's SO easy to make that leap. Kane first played in the NHL at age 19 just like Teravainen, both are 5-foot-11 and both are known for otherworldly stick-handling skills. It's too soon to know if the rookie has, say, a Conn Smythe Trophy in his future.

The newest member of the Blackhawks family was born early Tuesday, to defenseman Duncan Keith and his wife: Colton Duncan Keith (7 pounds, 7 ounces). Good, strong name. And far be it for us to attempt to wield influence on what the Keiths should name their offspring ... actually, it's fun, so that's what we're gonna do. Maybe they'll change their minds. So presenting, RedEye's top 10 names for Duncan Keith's son--with help from our Twitter followers. 10. Anything but Raffi He knows what he did. 9. Anything to which you can seamlessly add "er" or "y" Assuming...

It's easy to forgive the NHL, or at least the Blackhawks, when the team is playing this well. Jonathan Toews and Co. tied a franchise record Saturday by winning their fifth straight game to start the season, and they were going for team history against hated Detroit on Sunday. Could they do it? RedEye tracked how hot the Hawks were during Sunday's game. FIRST PERIOD 17:36: That didn't take long. Duncan Keith cruises toward the net on a power play and blasts it past Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard into the top left corner.